We are: Dave (Daddy), Cyndi (Mommy), Solana (2nd Grader), and identical twins Chloe (Pre-K'er and former micro-preemie) and Leila (angel). I began blogging at Our Young Shoot when Chloe was born at 24weeks and 1pound 7oz. I had no idea what was in store for us but I'm so glad to have documented her 5 month NICU adventure. I decided I enjoy blogging and am now keeping this one as a way to document memories for our girls and to share fun stories and pictures for friends and family members.

Dolly took the fall for Chloe's wrong-doing. I was cooking when I heard the XBox On/Off button furiously beeping in the living room. (It sits on our entertainment center at Chloe's height. She used to touch it all the time when she first started standing and walking.) "Ah Ah Ah Chloe. Don't touch that button," I called from the other room. When I poked my head around the corner Chloe stood with Dolly at the XBox as though Dolly was the one pressing the button and helpfully passed on my message. "Ah Ah Ah Dolly! Button No."

1/30/12

Dolly is officially Chloe's favorite toy of the month. Dolly goes EVERYWHERE with her and shares in everything Chloe does. If I offer Chloe a drink or a bite of something I have to give Chloe a drink or bite first. If I'm blowing my nose I suddenly find myself blowing Dolly's nose.

Dolly was recently given a lesson in fireplace tools and how soot easily rubs off of them and onto clothing. She also shared Chloes prunes, took a dip in the dog's water bowl, and tap danced on top of the litter box. Dolly received her first "bath" in the washing machine today. She receives too many hugs and kisses to continue on in her dirty state.

Dave called from work and I let Solana answer the phone. There was a lot of static on the line.

"Daddy! You're breaking up with me!"

1-29-11

Mommy, you're the best Mommy ever! Because you're so fun. And you always know just what to give me for my birthday. And, by the way, I know exactly what I want for my next birthday! I want those cake pop things you got for Mia.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Dave bought me a Kindle for Christmas because I put The Secret Garden on his and kept stealing it when we were in Mexico. I like reading on a Kindle but I'm a cheapskate. I just find it hard to bring myself to pay for books that I can easily get at the library. I love the library and take the girls there all the time. Solana feels at home there and wanders off to select books, sit down, and read. I feel like I've done something right when she does that.

I was thrilled that the library started lending books on Kindle but find that the selection doesn't include most of the books on my reading wish list. I just read Wuthering Heights. Not previously on my wish list but it was a free Kindle book. And as annoying as it was, it was a page turner and I'm glad to have read it. At least now I will always understand Catherine and Heathcliff references. Then I read One For The Money, the Catherine Heigl movie will soon come out. This was a paperback that my neighbor lent me.

Next is Food Rules by Michael Pollan on Kindle. There wasn't a long wait list from the library on that one and I wanted to read a Michael Pollan book....I just kind of don't feel like it right now. I'm in the middle of a really great series called Camulod Chronicles. My dilemma is: read the rest of the Camulod Chronicles from the library or pay for the Kindle versions. My cheap nature is taking over. I just can't bring myself to buy them.

And in the meantime Dave seems to be reading 4 hours a day and tearing through Kindle books like there's no tomorrow. I cringe every time I see another Amazon purchase confirmation on the email. Damn. I hate being me sometimes. You'd think I was raised in the Depression era or something. And even though I'm fully aware of it I can't change it! Sometimes you have to laugh at your own ridiculousness.

We finally took Chloe's bottle away from her. I lined it up with the the end of formula. Her Ped said to keep her on Neosure until she turned 2. When she turned 2 (August) I decreased her formula/milk ration from 1/1 to 1/3. When she turned adjusted 2 (December) we still had two canisters left and decided to just use them up. We finished them a week ago and then took her bottle away cold turkey.

It's been a bit of a struggle. She hasn't cried, or really even asked for, her bottle at all. But she suddenly hates milk. So strange. She had several milk-only bottles before the switch and she drank those just fine. But milk in a cup is just not acceptable. She'll drink water ok. But milk is a struggle. I'm trying to just let her do her thing and work it out herself. I'm just not super comfortable with her diminished fluid intake and sudden removal of milk from her diet.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

The winter lasts a long time in Ohio. I got home from doing a Pampered Chef show yesterday afternoon and the girls were both grumpy, bored, clingy, and generally not happy. I could tell it was a case of the winter blues. During the rest of the year we go outside to play almost every day. But once the temperature dips into the low 40's and below I don't really want them outside playing for any significant amount of time. It's been weeks since Chloe really played outside and Solana's only been out a handful of times.

I decided to bring the outdoors in and their moods brightened immediately. I guess this is what you do (and what becomes of your living room) when you have little ones and live in Ohio...

Thursday, January 19, 2012

I was just looking at Facebook and found this interview that I gave Solana right when I first joined FB. I did it again today. Here are the results:

My comments are in parentheses ( ).

1. What is something mom always says to you?3.5: Will you please come in here so I can brush your hair? And I say "yes" ( I like how she gives me such good manners!)6.5: Solana needs to eat more of her lunch because she didn't eat enough of it at lunch time. (Current topic of discussion since she's been coming home from school every day with a full lunch box.)

2. What makes your mom happy?3.5: When you do what she says.6.5: When I give her a hug. I was just about to give you a hug. (jumps up and hugs me)

3. What makes mom sad?3.5: Not doing what you say.6.5: When I don't do the right thing. When I don't make the right choice, actually.

4. How does your mom make you laugh?3.5: Make a funny joke and make silly faces.6.5: By making funny faces.

5. What was your mom like as a child?3.5: Me! Mmmm. She liked her Daddy so much!6.5: Kind of like me. You looked kind of like me.

7. How tall is your mom?3.5: 9? I don't remember...6.5: She's....ummm...can we just check, Mommy? I'm almost halfway as tall as her. And this is something that makes her laugh. See Mommy? (while doing a silly dance)

8. What is her favorite thing to do?3.5: Playing6.5: Be with me and Chloe.

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?3.5: Jogging.6.5: On the computer and on the phone.

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?3.5: (I had to explain "famous" as someone that everybody knows - like Dora or Cinderella.) Oh, umm For talking - just like Obama. (LOL - can you tell we watch a lot of CNN? And talking?!? That's the LAST thing I would be famous for. Haha!)6.5: Cooking and Pampered Chef.

11. What is your mom really good at?3.5: Memory game6.5: Making me and Chloe laugh. And have fun. And cooking! She's really good at cooking. Reeeealy good.

12. What is your mom not very good at?3.5: combing the doggie6.5: Jump rope. hahahahahehehehe. giggle giggle.

13. What does your mom do for a job?3.5: I don't remember6.5: Watch Chloe.

14.What is your mom's favorite food?3.5: Peanut butter and jelly ("Really?" I ask laughing because I don't like PB&J that much.) I mean, soup.6.5: Shrimp (I made coconut shrimp for the first time recently. Otherwise, I almost never cook or eat shrimp. Haha!)

15.What makes you proud of your mom?3.5: make silly faces (LOL - she didn't really get this one)6.5: Cuz she is very smart. She should be on TV cuz she's so good at cooking. (I love it that she thinks I'm such a good cook and always has to be constantly prodded to eat her dinner.)

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?3.5: Snow White (I think it's the black hair)6.5: I think you would be good being Dora. I actually do. Because it's the only thing I could think of.

17. What do you and your mom do together?3.5: memory game, play with Bluebell6.5: Dancing. That dancing game on Kinect.

18. How are you and your mom the same?3.5: blue (she had a blue shirt and I have blue jeans)6.5: We both know a lot of Spanish. What? I like Espanol!

19. How are you and your mom different?3.5: I have brown hair and you have black hair6.5: Our eyes are different.

20. How do you know your mom loves you?3.5: you do silly dances sometimes with me (as she did a silly dance)6.5: Because whenever I feel sad she gives me a hug.

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?3.5: because he's nice6.5: He's handsome!

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?3.5: Chuck E Cheese (LOL - even after I denied liking CEC she still insists I do. Hahaha. She tries this Jedi mind stuff on me all the time!)6.5: Home?

Monday, January 16, 2012

We Converted Chloe's crib into a toddler bed. It's been about two weeks now and she's doing great! It's weird. She used to stand up and hang over the edge of her crib when she didn't want to go to sleep. Now she just lays there. Every once in a while she'll start to get out of bed but (watching the video monitor) we'll just call from the other room, "Chloe, get in bed and go night night." Strangely, it works. We don't get it. We keep waiting for her to refuse to stay in bed but...she's doing great!

Warning: Potty Language below.

Maybe she's giving us a little break after the miserable failure that was potty training. By the way, I started giving her "poopie treats" (ie. 3 chocolate chips) in order to create a positive experience surrounding pooping. This isn't an attempt to get her to poop in the potty, mind you, it's an attempt to get her to poop PERIOD! After inserting suppositories and watching (literally) her little rectum tear multiple times as a result of huge hard compacted poops (compacted because she held it in for a day or more) I was desperate and in tears over the situation (literally). The time she spit out the suppository and still managed to hold in the poop was the last draw. This child has gained enough control over her rectal muscles that she can simultaneously hold her feet near her shoulders and do that!?!? I begged her, "Please let your poopies come out. Please. It'll hurt so much less if you don't hold them in."

The magical poopie treats seems to have worked. She pooped three times yesterday completely on her own! I don't think we're completely out of the woods, though. I can keep her poop super soft for a long time but not forever...there will come a time that it will be normal. Hoping for the best!

80 Days Intubated - with a tube down her throat and a machine breathing for her.

11 Months on oxygen during the day.

18 Months breathing with oxygen at night.

At 2 years 5 months she is officially released from pulmonary!! Such a big girl!

We love Chloe's pulmonologist, Dr. Sobande but, I must say, I wasn't sad to leave without making a future appointment. Dr. Sobande was thrilled with Chloe's growth (25.3lbs and 2'9"). According to the curve on his computer she's approaching 50th %ile in both weight and height. Seems hard to believe for me but it's pretty amazing!

Chloe's going through a phase where nobody can hold or touch her but me. She wouldn't let Dr. Sobande hold her but she gave him a high five and chatted with him a bit. Her smile is quite charming - he couldn't smile at her enough and just shook his head at how happy he was - saying he wished we were his last appointment so we could just visit for a while. She does have that effect on people.

We're so happy for Chloe - our big easily breathing girl. :-)

P.S. She had an appointment with Dr. Bloom, her opthamologist, today. He's happy and made no changes. We'll see him again in three months. :-)

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

This post seems like it's never going to have a conclusion so I guess I'll go ahead and post it. The last time I posted about Chloe and her potty I was excited because she'd had some surprising success. Here's the succession of events from that point.

-Day 1: We decided to put her on the potty regularly without expectations but hopes. I wanted to keep it fun and not scare her away. (Spoiler alert: I failed) She had a few more #1's and another #2 on the potty that day. We started thinking, "Wow! This might actually happen!"

-Day 2: I noticed she was about to go #2 so I put her on the potty. She tried to stand up so I gave her a quick hug to sneakily encourage her back down onto the seat. The #2 popped out when I did that. But she whimpered and I noticed a bit of blood when I wiped her. It was hard and big.

-From that moment on she refused to poop on the potty. Ooops. Ok. No problem. We'll back off of potty training.

-Then she refused to poop at all. Crap. (not literally)

-Chloe quickly become an expert at thrusting her hips forward and squeezing her butt cheeks tight to stop from pooping. We caught her several times in the act of stopping herself and let it go on for two days. Knowing that she's an every day pooper I had to do something. I gave her a suppository and "helped her." After two days of holding it I had to help because it had become compacted - hard and big.

-I spent the next three weeks on alert for the tell-tale signs of holding it and came running every time to force her knees to her belly and stop her from..stopping it. Her diet became a flow of fiber. Quinoa, Beans, Prunes, Steel Cut Oatmeal. She had the softest poop on the planet but still held it. With skipping one day it compacted - no longer soft.

-We did about 5 suppositories over the course of 3 weeks. She had maybe one unassisted BM that entire period. I called the doctor. "We recommend making her poop soft." Done. "Explain to her that it will hurt more if she holds it." Umm. I don't think her language is that developed. "Try treats every time she poops to create a positive correlation." Good idea! I'm about to bake up a batch of oatmeal cookies when...she pukes and gets the runs.

As of today she's still having sicky soft poops but at least she's doing them unassisted. Maybe if I keep them soft even after she's fully recovered she'll continue on her own.

I think we can safely say that potty training was a bust and she's not ready.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Dave's beer making skills are ever improving...and so are his label making skills.

His Bumpkin Ale has a really nice pumkin flavor to it. It was ready in mid-November. A perfect fall flavor. I'll leave it up to you to figure out the identity of the scary bumpkin.

The Honey Badger is a Honey Brown Ale. It's incredibly tasty and smooth! The color is a really dark caramel brown. Dave was particularly proud of this label and has become somewhat obsessed with that Honey Badger YouTube video. I'm pretty sure I've had to watch it a good 3 times in the past month since he brewed it. If you watch the video you'll understand the quote at the bottom of his label. Oh what the heck. I've had to watch it. You should, too. http://youtu.be/4r7wHMg5Yjg It actually is kind of hilarious.

Chloe's a little better today. She spent the entire day Friday in my arms. I think she literally walked about 4 steps all day. I was giving her tiny sips of Gatorade and Pedialyte all day. By dinner time she was ready for some rice. Then we tried a few crackers and apple sauce. She did ok.

She got sick again this morning after some apple sauce so we went back to fluids only. She hates drinking anything other than her bottle so I was surprised at her cooperation with Gatorade Friday. That honeymoon period officially ended Friday evening. She was personally offended when I put water in her bottle this morning. She decided she REALLY hates drinking Gatorade and Pedialyte. We tried the straw method, the begging method, the cup method, the freeze it method, the pour it in her mouth while she's wailing method (I don't recommend that one, by the way). We finally got some down by offering her tiny bits of crackers after a sip. I estimate she drank about 8 ounces of fluid today.

She kept peeing little bits in her diaper and she had tears when she cried so I think she's ok. We'll probably try a bottle tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed!

Friday, January 6, 2012

Chloe has had pooping issues for a couple of weeks now. (More on that and potty training in another post). I've been trying really hard to keep her poops soft - lots of steel-cut oats, quinoa, prunes, pears, peas, etc.

Wednesday she passed really stinky gas all day long. Yesterday it was so stinky I checked her diaper about 20 times. She had two really loose stools. Today she puked all over me. Twice. How is it that 7 ounces of milk creates what appears to be a whole quart of puke?

No dairy for 24 hours. 2 hours of nothing & then a tablespoon of pedialyte every 15 minutes. Then the BRAT diet. This ought to be interesting since, besides her bottles, she doesn't usually take more than a few sips of anything else during the day.

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About Me

I'm a wife and a mom to a 1st grader, a toddler and former micro-preemie, and an angel. I began blogging when Chloe, our survivor identical twin/micro preemie was born and discovered that I really enjoy it. I hope I can keep it up for years to come.